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Monday, August 24, 2015

Orange Drank - Brewday & Recipe

Over this summer I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Burlington, VT during the Vermont Brewer's Festival. In addition I visited Shaun Hill's magical brewery in Greensboro, VT, and I got lucky enough to bring two 4-packs of the fable Heady Topper back with me to North Carolina.

The pale ales, IPAs, and IIPAs of this region really stood out to me as something unique. They all shared a softer than usual mouthfeel, incredible aromatics, an interesting collaboration between yeast and hop aromas, and less-than flocculant yeast. This beer is my humble attempt to replicate some of these features. I am quite sure that this will be a long process to develop the skills and knowledge to brew a truly fantastic "North East style" IPA. But it's a process I am excited about.

I usually love IPAs with a huge citrus nose and flavor, so I went with Citra, Amarillo, and Galaxy hops. Originally I was going with 80% Citra, 20% Amarillo (to keep the Citra from becoming too overwhelming, or even catty as some have reported) but I decided to cut in some Galaxy to add some depth of flavor. I also decided to add some Simcoe to the dry hop in order to add a touch of pine and grapefruit and provide a little "seasoning" that I hope will add some pop to the citrus aromas.The grain bill is designed to emphasize body, at the cost of clarity. So I went with flaked oats over wheat malt, hoping to get some of that slick stout-like feel to the beer. Crystal 40 is for color, more body, and head retention.

Mash water treated with 5 mL of 88% Lactic Acid to achieve mash pH of 5.3

Sparge water treated with 0.5 mL of 88% Lactic Acid to achieve pH of 5.4

Mash

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Saccharification Rest - 18.75qt @ 150 F

Batch Sparge in 3 steps with 4.87 gallons total @ 170 F

Notes--------------------08.16.2015 - Brewed with a friend from out of town. He actually handled much of the boil solo as I had a church event that I had forgotten about when planning when to brew. Chilled to 75 F quickly but warm groundwater meant it wasn't getting much cooler, so the beer was racked to a 6 gallon Better Bottle and placed in my fermentation fridge with my SC-1000+ set to 62 F. Once cool the two packs of yeast were pitched.08.19.2015 - Ramped up to 68 F over 12 hours to keep fermentation moving.08.23.2015 - Half of the dry-hop was added. I'm hoping that the still somewhat active fermentation hoping to allow for some interaction between the hops and yeast (inspired byMichael Tonsmeire's recent use of the same technique)08.26.2015 - Ramped up to 72 F over 12 hours to ensure complete attenuation. Took a small sample and measured the SG with my refractometer and the handy Beer Smith refractometry tool to be 1.007, which puts my ABV higher than I anticipated. Might have to recheck with my hydrometer when I rack to the keg. Sample tastes great! Piney and grapefruit aroma, nice malt flavor without being sweet or actually all that malty. Mandarin oranges and star fruit abound. Psyched to get this in a keg.08.28.2015 - A second sample measured today had the same SG of 1.007. Began slowly ramping temperature down to 33 F to encourage the yeast to flocculate quickly. Again, I'm not 100% convinced that my refractometer is calibrated correctly as I anticipated a higher final gravity, so when I keg I will double check the gravity with a hydrometer.09.01.2015 - Moved to a CO2 flushed keg with the remaining half of the dry hops in a hop bag. While transferring, beer appeared cloudy but free from yeast, and a pleasant malty orange color. Cranked the regulator to 30 psi for the next 24 hours and then down to 54 F and 16 psi to hit a nice serving temperature and carbonation of 2.2 volumes of CO2, a little low for this style, but I'm looking for the soft mouthfeel I think this will give me.09.05.2015 - Tasting notes may be found here.